Tūhura Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin said he and about 20 others watched the eclipse in its entirety from Middlemarch on Tuesday night and early yesterday morning.
"It was fantastic, perfect weather conditions coming through so it was quite cool."
Watching from Middlemarch meant when the moon was fully covered, there was pitch-black darkness.
In truly dark spots, you could not even see the person sitting next to you, he said.
Just before 10pm, the moon slipped into the Earth's shadow and just after 1am, the total eclipse began to end.
It was completely over by 3.23am.
As the moon left the total eclipse, it took on a reddish hue, which Mr Griffin said was because the Earth was "cutting off" the light between the sun and the moon.
"If there was an astronaut standing on the moon at the time, they would see a circle of red light around Earth ... and that's all the sunrises and sunsets at the same time."
Mr Griffin said being able to see an eclipse depended on where you were on the Earth at the time.
The next total eclipse people in New Zealand could see will be in 2028.
